Schoology DiscussionsLearn how you can use these to further critical thinking

in your students outside of class. Lisa Rutledge

American College of Education

© 2015 Lisa Rutledge. This material may be reproducedin whole or in part for educational purposes only provided that the author is credited

Step 1:Log into your Schoology account. Join this class with code: You are going to participate in a discussion that I have created for this class, as a student. First, let me show you how to create a discussion, including the features of adding a link for reference, and adding a rubric with criteria that display to your students as learning objectives.

In one of your own classes, go to Grade Book, then below to Grade Setup. Here you will add a category, and call it “discussions”. This will tabulate all discussion grades into a cumulative grade- if you want to design it that way.

Create the discussion

Add title, description, a link, due date and points.

Check the box “Enable Grading”.Choose the “Discussions” category that we created earlier.Create a new rubric, specific to how you want to grade discussions.

Give this rubric a title, “Discussions”Add as many criteria as you’d like!

Then click Create!

Once you’ve created the discussion, the criteria you’ve written will show up as “learning objectives”, both to you as the teacher and to the student.

Clicking this advanced icon hides peer responses until after the student makes his/her first post.

This is what the discussion (bottom half) looks like to the student.

https://www.schoology.com/system/files/attachments/page_embeds/m/2015-07/iOS_App--Grading_Discussions_559dbacf58a02.gif

Click the above link to see a sped-up example of how grading a discussion looks to the teacher.

Year-Long, Shared Discussions

Schoology Discussions can be shared between multiple classes, opening the doors to collaborative learning across age gaps, academic disciplines, and geographic barriers. One discussion can also be open for the whole year, making it a valuable resource for continuous peer support and practice.

For instance, you could connect your French class with another class in France—or another French class in your school if you prefer to stay local. Students can then discuss the language and even post pictures or record mini presentations as they help each other with pronunciation and vocabulary.

Rodgers, D. (2014) Five simple ways to turn your Schoologycourse into a community of practice. Schoology Blog. Feb.25th.

References

Beal, Jeff. (2013) Intro Credits Theme, House of Cards. Netflix.

Rodgers, D. (2014) Five simple ways to turn your Schoologycourse into a community of practice. Schoology Blog. Feb.25th

© 2015 Lisa Rutledge. This material may be reproducedin whole or in part for educational purposes only provided that the author is credited